Torysh Valley of Balls: the stone spheres of Mangystau

Torysh, the “Valley of Balls”, is a tract at the northern tip of the Western Karatau hills in Mangystau Region, where stone spheres from 10–15 cm to 4 m across lie scattered over the steppe. Depending on the source, it is 90 to 150 km from Aktau; the nearest village, Taushyk, is 17.5 km away. May and September are the months to go, and most visitors pair it with Sherkala Mountain, 50–60 km away. The valley has no protected status, so whether the balls survive depends largely on the people who visit.

What the Valley of Balls is

The Torysh spheres are concretions — mineral masses that grow layer by layer around a core: a shell, an ammonite, a fish bone, a bit of plant. If the sediment around them was uniform, the result is an almost perfect ball. Wikipedia links them to the floor of the ancient Tethys Ocean; once the water retreated, wind and rain stripped away the softer rock and left the spheres exposed. According to geologist Bekbolat Tolegenuly (Lada.kz, 2024), most of the balls are still underground.

Locals call the place Koi-Tas, “stone sheep” (Tengrinews, 2020). Legends say a hero fired a cannon and the cannonballs landed here, or that the balls are enemies turned to stone after people prayed to their ancestors for protection.

How old and how big

Sources disagree sharply on age, and we are not going to pick one figure.

Torysh is not the only concretion field around. Tolegenuly also names the area near Onda village, Zharmysh, the surroundings of Sherkala, Zhyngyldy and spots further towards Beket-Ata, all along a fault in the northern Karatau.

Getting to Torysh from Aktau

Distances from Aktau range from 90 to 150 km: the tourism ministry (2026) says about 90 km, Tengrinews (2020) about 100 km, Wikipedia and Lada.kz (2024) about 150 km. Part of the gap is straight-line versus road distance. Even the district differs: Wikipedia puts the tract in Mangystau District, the ministry in Tupkaragan District.

On Tengri Auto’s five-day loop (2026), Torysh is the second stop after Sherkala — 50–60 km between them depending on the track — and the Shakpak-Ata underground mosque is another 50–70 km on, with Taushyk village as the landmark. About two-thirds of that loop is dirt, salt flat and stony plateau, so the outlet recommends a prepared 4x4 with good clearance, more than one spare tyre, and travelling in a group.

When to visit

Tengrinews (2020) suggests May to September. But summer heat in Mangystau easily passes +40 °C, and nights in the desert are 20–30 degrees colder (Tengri Auto, 2026). The most pleasant windows are mid-April to late May and the second half of September, as for the rest of Mangystau. There is no shade at all: bring a hat, sturdy shoes, food and drinking water.

No protection — and a theft problem

The Valley of Balls is not a protected natural area. The Forestry and Wildlife Committee confirmed this, and in May 2023 the regional akimat said it could not fund protection from the local budget (Lada.kz). The balls are classed as natural objects, not historical monuments, either.

The results are visible. In May 2023 a video showed stones being loaded with a forklift; the men got away with a “preventive talk” and were told to return them. Lada.kz mentions large stones being hauled off in dump trucks, and Tengrinews wrote back in 2020 that the spheres decorate streets, hotels and private yards in Aktau. In November 2024 police were looking for tourists filmed rolling one of the balls out of place (Newtimes.kz).

In 2017 the akimat applied for UNESCO natural heritage status for the tract, without success. In 2024 Torysh was included among 39 natural sites planned for a local protected area, with the scientific justification meant for the 2025 budget (Lada.kz, November 2024).

Visitor rules of thumb

• Do not take, move or crack the balls — not even the small ones.
• Do not dig around them: most concretions are still below ground.
• Keep your car on the existing track, not between the spheres.
• Expect no signal and no hotels; fuel only in Aktau, Zhanaozen and Shetpe. See our before you go checklist.

Nearby

• Sherkala Mountain — the “lion’s fortress”, 50–60 km away, with the Akmysh oasis at its foot.
• Shakpak-Ata underground mosque — 50–70 km further on. Mangystau’s rock mosques joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2026.
• Bozzhyra and Mangystau — Kyzylsay fees, fuel, signal and desert safety.